Controlling lighting using spatial distribution of users

ABSTRACT

A method of automatically commissioning a lighting system comprising a plurality of luminaires for illuminating one or more regions within a space. The method comprises: receiving signals from a positioning system, indicating a respective location within the space at which each of a plurality of physical entities is detected by the positioning system, each of the entities being a person or a movable nonhuman object. The method further comprises determining a spatial distribution of at least some of the entities based on the locations indicated by the signals from the positioning system, and determining a region within the space corresponding to this spatial distribution. The method then comprises identifying a group of the luminaires that are arranged to illuminate the determined region and storing identifiers of those luminaires together as a group in a commissioning database.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to controlling the illumination emittedby one or more luminaires into a space, e.g. retail space or a spaceused in the hospitality industry.

BACKGROUND

Digitally controllable lighting provides more possibilities thanfunctional or simple decorative lighting. The presence of multiplecontrollable illumination sources in the same room or area makes itpossible to create lighting effects that are variable in space and time.These lighting effects can include changes in light intensity, colour,colour temperature, and/or spatial distribution of the light (dependingon the type of illumination sources and related drivers available). Moreand more, lighting is perceived by end users not only as a functionalneed, but also as something to use to create an atmosphere or ambiencein a given space.

For instance, atmosphere creation can be beneficial for retailers. E.g.a suitable lighting atmosphere in a physical store can provide customerswith a shopping experience that differentiates the store from handyonline shopping, or that differentiates it from other nearby stores. Asanother example, a lighting atmosphere can also be used to attractcustomers to a particular display or product area, or influence theirshopping habits. Nonetheless, advanced digitally controllable lightingstill has a relatively low market penetration in retail due to difficultand costly commissioning and recommissioning procedures. These costsapply not only to the first set up of a new system, but also to theperiodic or frequent reconfigurations of stores (for example when newpromotions are being displayed, or when in-store furniture such asshelving, display stands, product bins and/or points-of-sale are shiftedaround to different locations within the store, e.g. seasonally or whenthere is a sale). Current state of the art commissioning tooling allowsonly for the creation lighting scenes on a fixed basis based on theintended usage of the lighting system. When the store is reconfigured,the scenes have to be manually redesigned.

Some known lighting systems use presence sensors to dynamically adaptthe lighting in dependence on occupancy, to turn on and off or dim upand down the light in a given area in dependence on whether a person isdetected to be present in that given area. WO2009/090598 also disclosesadapting a lighting atmosphere in a given area, e.g. a shop, independence on the sensed occupancy in that area.

Patent application DE 102005029728 A1 relates to an arrangement forcontrolling the intensity of road lighting, comprising one or moremobile devices which can be identified, a network for locating thesemobile devices, one or more road lighting elements and a controller forreceiving information about the location of the mobile devices and fordetermining appropriate road lighting requirements therefrom and forcontrolling the road lighting elements accordingly. The controller maycontrol only road lighting elements in the direct vicinity of, forexample, pedestrians, motorists or cyclists, and the remaining lightingof main traffic routes can be dimmed or turned off completely in certainareas. The illuminated zone ‘moves’ with the mobile device and thus withits carrier.

Patent application GB 2481721A relates to a mobile telecommunicationsnetwork including a core and a radio access network having radio meansfor wireless communication with mobile terminals registered with thenetwork, wherein the radio access network includes control meansoperable to control the use of network resources by said mobileterminals, wherein the control means is operable to collect informationrelating to said mobile terminals (e.g. location, movement) and tocontrol the operation of external resources, such as street furniture inthe vicinity of the each of the mobile terminals, in dependence on theinformation.

SUMMARY

Commissioning, for the present purposes, refers to creating a group ofluminaires by storing the IDs of the grouped luminaires in acommissioning database along with some indication that they form a groupso that they can be controlled together as a group. Existing systemslike WO2009/090598 may control the light emitted by a luminaire or by agiven, already-defined group of luminaires in dependence on occupancy,but they do not allow for automatic commissioning “in the field”. Itwould be desirable to adapt the commissioning of luminaires in a space,and therefore the lighting atmosphere they provide, in a space such as astore to the current, real-life usage needs of the moment. Particularly,as recognized herein, improved flexibility could be achieved byautomatically grouping luminaires in dependence on a detected spatialdistribution of people and/or nonhuman objects.

According to one aspect disclosed herein, there is provided equipmentfor automatically commissioning a lighting system comprising a pluralityof luminaires for illuminating one or more regions within a space. Theequipment comprises: a positioning system interface configured toreceive signals from a positioning system, indicating a respectivelocation within said space at which each of a plurality of physicalentities is detected by the positioning system, each of the entitiesbeing a person or a movable nonhuman object. The equipment alsocomprises a controller configured to determine a spatial distribution ofat least some of said entities based on the locations indicated by thesignals from the positioning system, and to determine a region withinsaid space corresponding to said spatial distribution (said region beingsmaller than said space). Further, the controller is configured toidentify a group of the luminaires that are arranged to illuminate saidregion (the group of luminaires being fewer than the plurality ofluminaires of the lighting system), and to store identifiers of theseluminaires together as a group in a commissioning database.

Thus there is provided a means for automatically creating groups oflighting devices based on the formation of people and/or moveable assetsdetected in a space. The system is arranged to detect locations ofpeople and/or objects in a space (e.g. shop, office or hotel) in orderto detect the distribution of one or more groups of people and/orobjects in a specific area, and then to create one or more groups ofluminaires that belong to the area where the group of people and/orobjects is formed, so that a given group of luminaires can be controlledtogether as one item. By adapting the grouping of luminaires independence on the sensed grouping of people and/or objects, this canadvantageously reduce the duration and/or cost of commissioning and/orrecommissioning in lighting systems in professional buildings (e.g.retail). Instead of requiring manual commissioning or recommissioning,the system acts to automatically accommodate the real usage needs of themoment, or needs that are identified from the analysis of dataconcerning the actual usage of the building or the like. Suchflexibility may be beneficial not only in a retail environment, but alsoother environments such as in the hospitality sector or in an office.

In embodiments, the controller may be configured to determine saidregion within said space corresponding to said spatial distribution ifsaid spatial distribution of said entities has been the same over apredetermined period of time. In other words, the controller may bearranged for determining the locations of the physical entities overtime, and identify the group of luminaires that are arranged toilluminate said region and to store the identifiers of the luminaries ofthe group together as the group in the commissioning database only ifthe physical entities have been present at or nearby the locationsduring the predetermined period of time. Thus, the luminaries may begrouped only when the physical entities are located at or nearby thelocations for a longer period of time. This is advantageous, because thegrouping does not change too often, which enables a system operator(e.g. a store owner) to keep an overview of the created groups. Thepredetermined period of time may, for example, be at least at least 5seconds, at least 10 seconds, at least one minute, at least one hour,etc, depending on the requirements of a specific context. Thepredetermined period of time may be adjustable via a user interface. Thepredetermined period of time may be dependent on the type of thephysical entities (the predetermined period of time may for example bedifferent for persons (e.g. 20 seconds) compared to movable nonhumanobjects (e.g. 20 minutes)).

In embodiments, the controller may be configured to store information onsaid region or locations in a database; and to repeat, on multipleoccasions over a period of time, the receiving of the signals from thepositioning system, the determination of the spatial distribution ofentities and the corresponding region within the space based on thereceived signals, and the storing of said information. The controllerthen analyses the stored information from the multiple occasions inorder to estimate a time-varying distribution of the people and/ornonhuman movable objects over said period, and performs thedetermination of said group of luminaires based on the time-varyingdistribution evaluated at a current time within a successive instance ofsaid period.

Thus by storing information on the distribution of the people or objectsin a database, it is possible to identify group dynamics over a periodtime within a given space such as a store or the like, i.e. to identifypatterns of behaviour or movement over at least one instance of arepeating period such as a day, week, month or year. It can then bepredicted that the distribution pattern is likely to repeat in asubsequent instance of the period in question, or extrapolated that arelated distribution is likely to occur in a subsequent instance of theperiod, in order to create one or more groups of luminaires based on thepredicted or extrapolated distribution patterns. E.g. if last week itwas detected that greater than a certain predetermined number ofcustomers bunched around a certain area at a certain time of day and/orweek (e.g. Friday lunchtime), then it can be identified that a group ofluminaires should automatically be created around that same area thisweek (e.g. this coming Friday lunchtime).

In embodiments, the equipment may comprise a lighting interfaceconfigured to enable the controller to control the illumination emittedby the luminaires; and the controller may be further configured toselectively control the illumination emitted by the group luminairesbased on said creation of the group of luminaires.

For example, preferably the lighting control equipment comprises a userinterface, and the controller may be configured such that said selectivecontrol comprises: outputting an indication of the identified group ofluminaires to a user via the user interface, and in response receivingback a user input via the user interface by which the user selects tocontrol the group of luminaires (by reference to the group as a wholerather than individually selecting individual luminaires), thencontrolling the illumination emitted by the group of luminaires based onsaid user input. Thus there is provided a user interface that displaysthe automatically formed groups of illumination sources and the relatedcontrol possibilities (e.g. increase of the light level, change colours,etc.) to a user such as a store manager, thereby assisting the user inquickly and easily adapting the lighting to the current needs.

In embodiments the control of the illumination emitted by said group ofluminaires may comprise: controlling an intensity, colour, spatialdistribution, and/or dynamic effect of the illumination.

In embodiments, the controller may be further configured so as,subsequent to the determination of said group of luminaires, to operatethe positioning system interface to receive one or more further signalsfrom the positioning system, indicative of a respective updated locationof each of one or more of said plurality of physical entities, and/or ofone or more newly present physical entities being people and/or nonhumanmovable objects newly detected in the space. The controller may beconfigured to then determine an updated spatial distribution based onthe updated locations, and determine an updated region within the spacecorresponding to the updated spatial distribution (the updated regionagain being smaller than said space); and in place of said group, toidentify an updated group of the luminaires that are arranged toilluminate the updated region, and store identities of the updated groupof luminaries together as a group in a commissioning database (theupdated group again being fewer than said plurality of luminaires of thelighting system).

Thus the controller is advantageously able not only to automaticallycommission the lighting system, but to do so dynamically, i.e. toautomatically commission and then recommission the lighting adaptivelyin response to changing conditions. For example as the historical dataon peoples' distribution is updated, or when the layout of the storechanges, then the controller can detect this and automaticallyrecommission the lighting system accordingly.

As mentioned, the entities based upon which the grouping of luminairesis performed may be people, movable nonhuman objects, or a combinationof both. In the case of nonhuman objects, these may be nonanimalobjects, non-living objects and/or inanimate objects. For instance, thenonhuman objects may comprise one or more items of furniture,animatronic exhibits, plants, animals, or autonomous robots. Note thatthe term “furniture” as used herein is not limited to furniture in thehome. Particularly, in embodiments the nonhuman movable objects maycomprise one or more items of retail furniture such as shelves, clothesracks, product bins, counters, points of sale, and/or promotionaldisplays. E.g. in a retail environment the controller may be configuredto detect locations of moveable assets (e.g. clothes racks, desks) inthe space in order to automatically create groups of luminaires based onthis information

In embodiments, for each respective one of one, some or all of saidentities, the positioning system is arranged to detect the location ofthe respective entity by reference to wireless signals transmittedbetween a mobile device attached to or carried by the respective entityand a plurality of reference nodes within range of the mobile device.E.g. the mobile device may be a smart phone or tablet carried about theperson, or a tracking tag attached to a tracked nonhuman asset.

In particular embodiments, one or more of the mobile devices may bewearable devices worn by the receptive people. For instance, nowadaysinnovative “smart devices” providing wearable user interfaces areincreasingly being released in the market, e.g. smartwatches, smartbracelets, smart rings, smart glasses and smart hats (“smart” herereferring to having one or more embedded pressing units arranged to runsoftware for providing various functionality). Amongst other functions,these devices provide new sensing modalities directly on the body of theuser, and may be connected to another device or system either locallyand/or via the Internet. Such sensing modalities can be used to detectboth activities of the user and characteristics of the user. Futurepenetration of these devices provides the opportunity for the diffusionof indoor positioning systems (IPS), which can detect location of people(or objects) in a closed environment. Different technologies can enabledetermination of the location, either requiring user interaction (suchas QR codes or NFC tags to be read via a smart device), or not requiringuser interaction (such as RF triangulation). Accuracy depends onbuilding architecture and usage and on technology used, but even a roughaccuracy of e.g. about 1 meter is good enough for several applications,even though higher accuracy may be desired.

In alternative or additional embodiments, for each respective one ofone, some or all of said people, the positioning system may be arrangedto detect the location of the respective person based on detecting awireless signal emitted by or reflected from the respective person'sbody. For example the space may be equipped with one or more presencesensors which operate by detecting heat emitted from the peoples bodies(e.g. passive infrared sensors), or by detecting motion of the people'sbodies (e.g. radar or active ultrasound sensors).

In further alternative or additional embodiments, for each respectiveone of one, some or all of said people, the positioning system may bearranged to detect the location of the respective person based on theuser interacting with a reference point in said space. For example, thereference point may take the form of a visible code (e.g. QR code) or anNFC tag disposed at a known location within in the space, and a person'slocation may be detected when that person uses a camera or other signalreader (e.g. RF reader) on-board his or her portable user device todetect the code or tag (or conversely the reference point may comprise acamera or reader which detects the location by detecting a visible codeor NFC tag on the portable device).

In embodiments said space may be an indoor space. In embodiments saidpositioning system may be an indoor positioning system. In embodimentssaid space may be open to the public. In embodiments said space may be aretail space, such as the interior of a shop or mall. Alternatively inembodiments said space may be a space used for hospitality, or may be anoffice space, or any other type of space.

According to another aspect disclosed herein, there is provided acomputer program product for automatically commissioning a lightingsystem comprising a plurality of luminaires for illuminating one or moreregions within a space, wherein the computer program product comprisescode embodied on a computer-readable storage medium and configured so aswhen run on one or more processing devices to perform operations of:receiving signals from a positioning system, indicating a respectivelocation within said space at which each of a plurality of physicalentities is detected by the positioning system, each of the entitiesbeing a person or a movable nonhuman object; determining a spatialdistribution of at least some of said entities based on the locationsindicated by the signals from the positioning system, and determining aregion within said space corresponding to said spatial distribution,said region being smaller than said space; and identifying a group ofthe luminaires that are arranged to illuminate said region and storingidentifiers of the luminaries of the group together as a group in acommissioning database, the group of luminaires being fewer than theplurality of luminaires of the lighting system.

According to another aspect disclosed herein, there is provided a methodof automatically commissioning a lighting system comprising a pluralityof luminaires for illuminating one or more regions within a space,wherein the method comprises: receiving signals from a positioningsystem, indicating a respective location within said space at which eachof a plurality of physical entities is detected by the positioningsystem, each of the entities being a person or a movable nonhumanobject; determining a spatial distribution of at least some of saidentities based on the locations indicated by the signals from thepositioning system, and determining a region within said spacecorresponding to said spatial distribution, said region being smallerthan said space; and identifying a group of the luminaires that arearranged to illuminate said region and storing identifiers of theluminaries of the group together as a group in a commissioning database,the group of luminaires being fewer than the plurality of luminaires ofthe lighting system.

In embodiments the lighting control equipment, system, computer programproduct and/or method may be further configured in accordance with anyof the features mentioned above or described elsewhere herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To assist understanding of the present disclosure and to show howembodiments may be put into effect, reference is made by way of exampleto the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an environment comprising alighting system and multiple people occupying the environment,

FIG. 2 is a schematic a schematic illustration of an environmentcomprising a lighting system and multiple non-living objects occupyingthe environment, and

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing interaction between alighting system and a positioning system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following describes a system for reducing the duration and cost ofcommissioning and/or recommissioning of lighting systems in professionalbuildings (e.g. for retail), by increasing the flexibility of the systemin order to accommodate needs of the moment or needs that arise from theanalysis of data concerning the usage of the building. Embodimentsenable the creation of groups of luminaires to be controlled by a storemanager via a dedicated user interface, based on a detected spatialformation of one or more groups of people (as determined by an indoorpositioning system) and/or based on the position of moveable in-storefurniture such as racks, point of sale (POS), etc.

As will be discussed in more detail shortly, embodiments use an indoorpositioning system (IPS) to detect the locations of people in a space(e.g. shop, office, hotel) and detect a formation of one or more groupsof people in a specific area; and then to automatically create one ormore groups of luminaires that belong to the area where the group ofpeople is formed and that can be controlled together as one item. Insome embodiments, the system also stores the information from the IPS ina database and analyses the stored data to detect group dynamics overtime in the store, in order to automatically create groups of luminairesbased on the real visiting patterns in the space. In furtherembodiments, the IPS may be used to detect location of moveable assets(e.g. clothes racks, desks) in the space in order to automaticallycreate groups of luminaires based on this information. The system alsoprovides a user interface for the user of the lighting system (e.g. thestore manager), the user interface being arranged to display theautomatically formed groups of luminaires and the related controlpossibilities, which in turn can be used by the user to trigger aspecific lighting effects for those groups (e.g. increase of the lightlevel, change colour, etc.).

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment 2 served by a lighting system4, 10 in accordance with embodiments disclosed herein. The environment 2is a physical space which is occupiable by multiple humans 6 (i.e. fitfor occupancy by multiple humans). The space 2 may comprise an indoorspace such as the interior of a shop (store), mall, bar, hotel,restaurant or nightclub. Alternatively or additionally the space 2 maycomprise an outdoor space such as a park in which an event such asmarket or fete is being held, and/or a partially covered space such as acovered market. In particular embodiments discussed herein the space isa retail space, e.g. a store such as a clothes store, or a mall, indooror outdoor market, or a hall in which a trade show is being held.Nevertheless, in other embodiments the teachings herein canalternatively be applied to other types of space 2, e.g. a space used inthe hospitality industry such as a hotel, bar, restaurant, nightclub,ballroom, or cruise ship; or an office space comprising one or moreoffice areas such as an open plan office area, one or more office roomsand/or one or more meeting rooms; or indeed other spaces, especiallythose open to the public, such as a museum.

The lighting system 4, 10 comprises plurality of luminaires 4 arrangedto illuminate some or all of the space 2, each either being located inthe space 2 itself or at least being disposed so that its illuminationis cast into the space 2. Each luminaire 4 comprises at least onerespective lamp (lighting element) arranged to generate the respectiveillumination, plus any associated housing, socket and/or support. E.g.each lamp may comprise an LED-based lamp, a filament bulb, or a gasdischarge lamp (and the different luminaries need not necessarily usethe same type of lamp). The lighting system 4, 10 further compriseslighting control equipment 10 comprising a lighting controller 18operatively coupled to the luminaires 4 so as to be able to control theillumination emitted from each of the luminaires 4.

The space 2 is also served by a positioning system 12 arranged to detectthe physical location of each of at least some of the people 6 foundwithin the space 2, i.e. the spatial coordinates of each such person inat least two spatial dimensions (typically in the plane of the floor,and typically in terms of Cartesian x and y coordinates in that plane).The term “positioning” herein refers to the act of detecting thephysical location of a person or other object, sometimes also called“localization”.

As will be discussed in more detail shortly, in accordance with thepresent disclosure the lighting control equipment 10 is configured toset a grouping 16 of the luminaires 4 based on an input from thepositioning system 16, and to operate such that the control of theemitted illumination is based on this grouping 16. This may compriseoutputting an indication of the grouping 16 to a user 14 (e.g. storemanager) via a suitable user interface of the lighting control equipment10, such that the user 14 can select to control the grouped luminaires4, 16 as a group based on the indicated grouping 16.

The positioning system 12 may operate based on any one of a number ofpossible localization technologies.

According to one possibility, the positioning system 12 works bydetecting the position of a mobile device 8 disposed about the person ofeach of the people 6 being detected, on the assumption that the mobiledevice 8 is approximately collocated with its respective person 6 (itsuser). In such cases the mobile device 8 may be carried in the hand ofthe person 6, or carried by the person 6 in a pocket or bag, or may beworn on the person's body. For instance in embodiments any given one ofthe mobile devices 8 may take the form of handheld device such as asmartphone or tablet, or may take the form of a wearable device such asa smart watch, smart bracelet, smart ring or smart hat. The mobiledevice 8 may take the form of a dedicated tracking device (e.g. atracking tag worn by the person 6 in question); or the mobile device 8may take the form of a general purpose user terminal (e.g. smartphone,tablet, smartwatch or smart-glasses), which happens to be present in thespace 2 based on its collocation with the respective person 6 and whichbased on this is exploited for the purposes disclosed herein. Note alsothat each of the mobile devices 8 of the different people 6 need notnecessarily all be of the same kind, and may comprise a mixture ofhandheld devices and wearables, and/or a mixture of general purpose userterminals and dedicated tracking devices.

In such embodiments, the positioning system 12 comprises a plurality ofreference nodes (not shown) disposed at different known locations thatare known to the positioning system, e.g. based on the positioningsystem having access to a database mapping IDs of the nodes to theirrespective coordinates. The positioning system 12 is configured todetect the location of the mobile device 8 (and therefore the respectiveperson 6) by reference to a plurality of wireless “beacon” signalstransmitted between the mobile device 8 and a respective plurality ofreference nodes. The plurality of reference nodes used for any givenlocalization operation may be all the reference nodes of the system orjust a subset of a wider network or arrangement of available referencenodes. Note also that the localization can be performed in a devicecentric manner or a network centric manner. In a network centricapproach, the mobile device 8 emits beacons signals to be received bythe reference nodes, and the reference nodes take measurements of thesesuch as received signal strength (e.g. RSSI), time of flight (ToF)and/or angle of arrival (AoA). The positioning system 12 then computesthe location of the mobile device 8 (and hence the corresponding person6) based on a localization computation technique such as triangulation,trilateration, multilateration or fingerprinting. In a device centricapproach the beacon signals are emitted from the reference nodes andreceived by the mobile device 8. The mobile device 8 takes themeasurements of these signals, and then either performs the localizationcomputation based on these measurements locally at the mobile device andreturns the computer location to the positioning system 12, or elsereturns the raw or partially-processed measurements to the positioningsystem 12 for the computation to be performed there.

The reference nodes may take any of a variety of different possibleforms. For instance in embodiments the reference nodes may take the formof dedicated reference nodes included in or within range of the space 2specifically for the purpose of localization, i.e. emitting dedicatedbeacon signals or with the dedicated purpose of detecting beaconsemitted by the mobile device 8. Alternatively the reference nodes may bepre-existing nodes that are already beaconing for some other primarypurpose, and wherein this beaconing is exploited for a secondary purposeof localization. For instance the reference nodes may be wireless accesspoints (APs) which emit beacons to advertise the availability of awireless local area network (WLAN). Either way, whether dedicatedreference nodes or not, the beacon signals may be transmitted inaccordance with any suitable wireless technology such as Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, ZigBee or Thread. In further examples, the positioning system12 could be a satellite based positioning system such as GPS, GLONASS orGalileo, in which the reference nodes are satellites. In embodiments, acombination of different reference node types may also be used.

In embodiments where the space 2 is an indoor space, the positioningsystem may be referred to an indoor positioning system (IPS). Such asystem uses a location technology other than a satellite basedpositioning system (which typically cannot penetrate indoors).Nonetheless, in other embodiments the positioning system may be arrangedto operate in an outdoor space or partially covered space, whether basedon satellite technology or otherwise.

Another possibility for localization is not to detect a mobile device 8,but rather to detect the body of the person 6. In this case thepositioning system 12 comprises a plurality of presence sensors (notshown) located in or at least within range of the space 2 in question,wherein the presence sensors either detect a signal given off by theperson's body (passive presence sensors), or emit a signal whichreflects from the person's body and the reflection is detected by thesensor (active presence sensors). There are again various ways ofachieving such positioning, as will be familiar to a person skilled inthe art. For instance, the presence sensors may comprise passiveinfrared (PIR) sensors arranged to detect the infrared signals given offby the human body due to its heat. Alternately the presence sensors maycomprise radar or active ultrasound sensors which emit a radio orultrasound signal, respectively, and detect the reflection of this froma person's body if present in the space 2. E.g. these may work bydetecting a Doppler shift in the reflected signal relative to theemitted signal, thereby detecting motion which is assumed to be themotion of a person 6. In yet another example, the presence sensors maycomprise one or more 2D cameras or 3D (depth aware) cameras, plus animage recognition algorithm (e.g. facial recognition algorithm or bodyrecognition algorithm) running on the positioning system 12 in order todetect people 6 in the images captured by the camera(s).

A yet further possibility is to detect the location of a person 6 bydetecting when that person interacts by means of a proximal interactionwith a known reference point in the space 2. For instance the space 2may be equipped with a plurality of near-field communication (NFC) tagsor NFC readers, such as RF (radio frequency) ID tags or RF ID readers.At least some of the people's mobile devices 8 (e.g. smartphones orwearables) may each also be equipped with a complementary NFC reader ortag, respectively (e.g. an RF ID reader or tag). When the person 6touches the tag of the mobile device 8 up against (or at least inproximity to) the reader at the reference point, it detects the tag andthus detects that the person 6 must be present at the location of thereference point. Or alternatively when the person 6 touches the readerof the mobile device 8 up against (or at least in proximity to) the tagat the reference point, the mobile device detects the tag and reportsthis to the positioning system 12, thus informing the positioning system12 that the person 6 is present at the location of the reference point.In a variant of such approaches, the tag may instead take the form of avisible, identifiable mark such as a 2D or 3D barcode (e.g. QR code),and the reader may take the form of a camera plus image recognitionalgorithm configured to detect the mark in images captured by thecamera. Again the mark and camera may be placed either way round on thereference point and mobile device 8 (analogous to a device centric andnetwork centric approach as discussed earlier).

Note also: a combination of different localization technologies may alsobe used together in order to achieve a better location fix.

FIG. 2 illustrates a variant of the scenario illustrated in FIG. 1. Hereinstead of people 6, the positioning system 12 is configured to detectthe position of each of a plurality of nonhuman objects 7 (again in atleast two dimensions, preferably at least in the plane of the floor, incoordinates such as Cartesian x and y coordinates in that plane). Inthis case the positioning system 12 may be arranged to detect thepositions of the objects 7 by detecting the position of a respectivemobile device 8 in the form of tracking tag 8 attached to or disposedwithin each of the objects 7. The detection of the positions of theobjects 7 may work based on an arrangement of reference nodes, using anyof the localization techniques as already discussed above in relation toFIG. 1 (e.g. device centric or network centric triangulation,trilateration, multilateration or fingerprinting based on exchange ofdedicated or incidental beacons between the tracking tag 8 and aplurality of the reference nodes). As another example, the positioningsystem 12 may comprise one or more 2D or 3D cameras plus an imagerecognition algorithm configured to detect the positions of the objects7 in the captured images.

Each of the nonhuman objects 7 being detected may for example take theform of: an item of furniture, a static or animatronic exhibit, anautonomous robot, a plant or arrangement of plants, or an animal oranimal enclosure. The different objects 7 may be of the same kind or acombination of different kinds. E.g. in embodiments where the space 2 isa retail space, the detected objects 7 may comprises items of retailfurniture such as shelving units, clothes racks, product displays,product bins, promotional displays, and/or points of sale (POSs). Or inembodiments where the space 2 is an office space, the detected objects 7may comprise for example desks, chairs, shelving units, and/orphotocopiers. Or in embodiments where the space 2 is a museum or part ofa museum, the detected objects 7 may comprise different museum piecesand/or exhibits. Or in embodiments where the space 2 is a park, gardenor garden centre, the detected objects 7 may comprise plants or plantdisplays. Or in embodiments where the space of 2 is a pet store, zoo orpetting zoo, each of the detected objects may comprise a differentanimal enclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates more details of an example system for automaticallydetermining the grouping 16, 16′ of the luminaries 4 in dependence on aformation of the people 6 and/or objects 7 in the space as detectedusing the positioning system 12, and for controlling the illuminationemitted by those luminaires in dependence on the determined grouping 16,16′.

The system comprises: the lighting control equipment 10, the positioningsystem 12, the luminaires 4, and, if used, the mobile devices 8. Forillustrative purposes only one of the luminaires 4 and only one of themobile device 8 are shown in FIG. 3, but it will be appreciated thateach such luminaire 4 and mobile device 8 may be configured inaccordance with that described in relation to FIG. 3.

The lighting control equipment 10 comprises a lighting controller 18, alighting control interface 20, a positioning system interface 30, acommissioning database 19 and a user interface 21. Each of the lightingcontrol interface 20, positioning system interface 30, commissioningdatabase 19 and user interface 21 is operatively coupled to the lightingcontroller 18. The luminaire 4 comprises a luminaire controller 24, adriver 26, one or more lamps 28, and a lighting control interface 22.Each of the lighting control interface 22 and driver 26 is operativelycoupled to the luminaire controller 24, and the driver 26 is operativelycoupled to the one or more lamps 28.

The lighting control interface 20 of the lighting control equipment 10is operatively coupled to the lighting control interface 22 of theluminaire 4, thereby enabling lighting controller 18 of lighting controlequipment 10 to communicate with the luminaire controller 4 in order tocause it to control, via the driver 26, the respective contribution tothe illumination emitted into the space 2 by the one or more lamps 28.This communication between the lighting controller 18 and luminairecontroller 24 via the respective interfaces 20, 22 may be implemented byany of a variety of connections. In embodiments the connection may be awired connection, e.g. implemented using a protocol such as an Ethernetor DMX, or using power line communication (PLC). Alternatively theconnection may be a wireless connection implemented using a wirelesscommunication protocol such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth or Thread.Either way the connection may be a direct connection between theinterfaces 20, 22 of the lighting control equipment 10 and eachrespective luminaire 4 or may be via one or more intermediate elementsof a wired or wireless network. In some embodiments a combination ofdifferent connection types could even be used for differentcommunications between the lighting controller 18 and luminairecontroller 24, and/or for different hops via one or more intermediatenetworks elements.

Anywhere herein where certain functionality is attributed to thelighting control equipment 10 it will be understood that this may beperformed under control of the lighting controller 18, and anywhereherein where the lighting control equipment 10 or lighting controller 18is described as communicating with or controlling a luminaire 4, it willbe understood that this may be implemented by the lighting controller 18communicating with the respective luminaire controller 24 via therespective interfaces 20, 22 using any of the communication technologiesmentioned above and/or others. Similarly where any functionality isattributed herein to a luminaire 4, it will be understood that this maybe performed under the control of the respective luminaire controller 24(and enacted via the driver 26 and one or more lamps 28). For brevitysuch details will not be repeated each time.

The positioning system 12 comprises a positioning system controller 34,a lighting control interface 32 and one or more positioning devices 36,e.g. an arrangement of presence sensors and/or an arrangement ofreference nodes disposed throughout (or at least in range of) the space2, and/or a 2D or 3D camera (configured to capture images in thevisible, infrared and/or UV spectrum). Each of the lighting controlinterface 32 and the one or more positioning devices 36 is operativelycoupled to the positioning system controller 34. The positioning systemcontroller 24 is configured to detect the positions (locations) of atleast some of the people 6 and/or nonhuman objects 7 in the space 2using the one or more positioning devices 36, according to any of thepositioning techniques already discussed above (e.g. triangulation,trilateration, multilateration and/or fingerprinting based on RSSI, ToFand/or AoA; and/or detecting IR emitted from a person's body or movementof the body; and/or detecting user interactions performed by people atknown reference points). Anywhere herein where reference is made topositioning, or detecting the position of a person 6 or object 7, or thelike, it will be appreciated that any such localization technologiesand/or others may be used, and for brevity the different options willnot be repeated each time.

The positioning system interface 30 of the lighting control equipment 10is operatively coupled to the lighting control interface 32 of thepositioning system 24, thereby enabling the positioning systemcontroller 34 to report positioning information to the lightingcontroller 18, wherein the reported positioning information isindicative of the determined positions of the people 6 and/or objects 7detected by the positioning system 12. This communication between thelighting controller 18 and positioning system controller 34 via therespective interfaces 30, 32 may again be implemented by any of avariety of connections. In embodiments the connection may be a wiredconnection, e.g. implemented using a protocol such as an Ethernet orDMX, or using power line communication (PLC). Alternatively theconnection may be a wireless connection implemented using a wirelesscommunication protocol such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth or Thread.Either way the connection may be a direct connection between theinterfaces 30, 32 of the lighting control equipment 10 and thepositioning system may be via one or more intermediate elements of awired or wireless network. In some embodiments a combination ofdifferent connection types could even be used for differentcommunications between the lighting controller 18 and positioning systemcontroller 34, and/or for different hops via one or more intermediatenetworks elements. Note also that the communication technology used tocommunicate between the lighting controller 18 and luminaire controller24 may be the same or different than the communication technology usedto communicate between the lighting controller 18 and the positioningsystem controller 34.

Anywhere herein where certain functionality is attributed to thepositioning system 12 it will be understood that this may be performedunder control of the positioning system controller 34, and anywhereherein where the positioning system 12 is described as communicatingwith the lighting control equipment 10, it will be understood that thismay be implemented by the positioning system controller 34 communicatingwith the lighting controller 18 via the respective interfaces 30, 32using any of the communication technologies mentioned above and/orothers. For brevity such details will not be repeated each time.

Each of the lighting controller 18, luminaire controller 24, positioningsystem controller 34 and (if used) mobile device controller 40 may beimplemented in the form of code stored on memory of the lighting controlequipment 10, luminaire 4, positioning system 12 or mobile device 8(respectively); and arranged to run on a processing apparatus of thelighting control equipment 10, luminaire 4, positioning system 12 ormobile device 8 (respectively); wherein the memory on which the code isstored may comprise one or more memory devices such as magnetic,electronic and/or optical memory devices implemented in one or morememory units at one or more physical locations, and the processingapparatus on which the code runs may comprise one or more processingunits implemented at one or more physical locations. Alternatively anyone or more of the lighting controller 18, luminaire controller 24,positioning system controller 34 and/or mobile device controller 40 maybe implemented in the form of dedicated hardware circuitry, orconfigurable or reconfigurable hardware circuitry such as a PGA or FPGA,or any combination of hardware and software. The lighting controlequipment 10 may take any of a variety of forms and may be implementedin a device within a single housing or distributed over multipleseparate devices in separate housings at different physical locations,or even different geographical sites. Note also that where implementedover multiple separate devices (or indeed where the communications usemore than one communication technology), each of the interfaces 20, 22,30, 36 may represent multiple transceiver devices and/or multiplelogical interfaces implemented through a given transceiver device.

As an example implementation, the lighting control equipment 10 may takethe form of a server (comprising one or more server units at one or moregeographical sites) and a user terminal coupled to the server via alocal area network and/or a wide area network, e.g. via a wide areainternetwork such as the Internet. In this case at least one of thecommissioning database 19 and lighting controller 18 may be implementedon the server whilst at least the user interface 21 may be implementedon the user terminal; and each of the lighting controller 18,commissioning database 19, lighting interface 20 and positioning systeminterface 30 may be implemented on either the server or user terminal(e.g. the server may communicate with the luminaires 4 and/orpositioning system 12 via a wired connection over the Internet, or theuser terminal may communicate with the luminaires 4 via a wirelessconnection via a local area network).

In alternative implementations, the lighting control equipment 10 mayall be implemented on a single device 10 such as a single user terminal,e.g. desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, smartphone or dedicatedlighting control device such as a wall panel. E.g. the lightingcontroller 18 may take the form of a lighting control app running on aportable user terminal such as a laptop, tablet, smartphone or even asmartwatch or smart-glasses, etc. In such embodiments the commissioningdatabase 19 may comprise a local database implemented on the sameterminal as the lighting controller 18, or may comprise a remotedatabase stored on another user terminal or a server, or a combinationof a local and remote database.

In yet further alternative implementations, the lighting controller 18may take the form of a distributed control function distributed amongstsome or all of the multiple luminaries 4. In this case the respectiveinterfaces 20, 22 represent an internal interface, and the descriptionherein of the lighting controller 18 and luminaire controller 24represents a logical division of functionality. In such embodiments thelighting control equipment 10 is comprised by the luminaires 4. Asanother alternative, the lighting controller 18 may take the form of adistributed control function distributed amongst some or all of thepositioning devices 36 (e.g. reference nodes or presence sensors). Inthis case the respective interfaces 30, 32 represent an internalinterface, and the description herein of the lighting controller 18 andpositioning system controller 34 represents a logical division of thefunctionality. In such embodiments the lighting control equipment 10 iscomprised by the positioning devices. The lighting controller 18 mayeven be distributed between both the luminaires 4 and positioningdevices 36. In any such embodiments the commissioning database 19 maycomprise a distributed database that is distributed amongst the samedevices (e.g. the luminaires 4) as the lighting controller 18, or maycomprise a remote database stored on a user terminal or server, or acombination of any such implementations.

The positioning system 12 may also be implemented in any of a variety offorms. For instance, in embodiments the positioning system controller 34may be implemented on a server which is coupled to the positioningdevice(s) 36 via a wired or wireless local area network and/or via awide area network, e.g. a wide area internetwork such as the Internet(wherein the server may be implemented by one or more physical serverunits at one or more geographical sites). In other embodiments, thepositioning system controller 34 may take the form of a distributedcontrol function distributed between some or all the positioning devices36 in the case where there are multiple positioning devices (e.g.reference nodes or presence sensors). Or if the positioning device is asingle camera, in some embodiments the positioning system controller 34may be embedded in the camera. Note that in some embodiments, some orall of the positioning system controller 34 could be implemented on thesame device or devices as some or all of the lighting controller 18,e.g. on the same server (which again may comprise one or more physicalserver units at one or more geographical sites). As yet anotherpossibility, the positioning is performed by reference to a plurality ofreference nodes, but using coded light instead of RF signals. In thiscase the positioning devices 36 may be comprised by the luminaires 4,using the respective lamp(s) 28 to emit the respective beacon signal inthe form of a coded light signal. In such embodiments, the positioningsystem controller 34 may take the form of a distributed control functiondistributed between the luminaires 4, or may take the form of a servercoupled to the luminaires 4 (again via any suitable wired or wirelesslocal or wide area network). The mobile device 8 is shown in FIG. 3 ascomprising a mobile device controller 40 and a mobile interface 38operatively coupled to the mobile device controller 40, the mobiledevice controller 40 being arranged to communicate with the positioningdevices 36 via the mobile interface 38 using any wireless communicationtechnology such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee or Thread. In the case wherethe positioning system 12 is configured to detect the position of aperson 6 or object 7 based on beacons signals transmitted between themobile device 8 and a plurality of the positioning devices 36 in theform of reference nodes, these signals are either sent from the mobileinterface 38 under control of the mobile controller 40, or are receivedby the mobile controller 40 via the mobile interface 38. In the lattercase (a device centric approach), the mobile controller 40 takes themeasurements of the beacon signals and returns the measurements to thepositioning controller 34 via the respective interfaces 38, 36; or evencomputes the position of the mobile device 8 locally at the mobiledevice 8 based on the received beacon signals and sends the result backto the positioning system controller 34 via the interfaces 38, 36. Notealso that the returned measurements or result does not have to be sentback using the same wireless technology as used for the beaconing, inwhich case the interfaces 36, 38 represents more than one transceiver,transmitter or receiver. E.g. the beaconing may be performed using codedlight and the measurements or results may be returned from the mobiledevice 8 to the positioning system 12 using an RF back channel.

Whatever form the various components take, the positioning system 12 isconfigured to detect the positions of at least some of the people 6and/or nonhuman objects 7 in the space 2, and report an indication ofthe detected positions to the lighting controller 18. Based on this, thelighting controller 18 determines a spatial distribution (i.e.formation) of at least some of the people 6 and/or objects 7, andidentifies one or more spatial regions within the space 2 correspondingto this distribution. The lighting controller 18 may determine thedistribution of people 6 and/or objects 7 in one of at least twopossible ways: (I) by the positioning system 12 reporting the individualpositions of each of the detected people 6 and/or objects 7 to thelighting controller 18, and the lighting controller 18 computing thespatial region based on these; or (ii) by the location system 12computing the spatial region based on the individual locations andreporting the computer region to the lighting controller 18.

Either way, the identification of a particular spatial formation ofpeople 6 and/or objects 7, and the identification of the regioncorresponding to this formation, may be performed in a number ofpossible ways. For instance, first it may be detected whether or not anyof the people 6 and/or objects 6 detected in the space have formed acluster. In such cases, a cluster may be declared as present whenevergreater than a predetermined density of people 6 (people per unit floorarea) is detected within the space 2. As another example, whenever eachof a predetermined number of people 6 in a set is detected to be withina threshold distance of at least one other of the people 6 in the set,then they may be detected as having formed a cluster. I.e. so if morethan n people in a certain set are each within no more than x meters ofat least one other people in the set, then the set may be declared as acluster for the present purposes.

Similar techniques may be applied for detecting clusters of non-humanobjects 7 such as furniture. Further, in some embodiments the processmay be configured to detect a cluster of a combination of one or morepeople 6 and one or more non-human objects 7. E.g. a cluster may bedeclared on the basis of greater than a predetermined threshold numberof people 6 being detected within a predetermined distance of apredetermined object 7 (e.g. more than a certain number of people areclustering around a certain promotional display, product area or POS).

Based on the determined cluster, the lighting controller 18 thendetermines the spatial distribution (i.e. formation) of the cluster,i.e. an approximate indication of its shape. This corresponds to acertain region of space within the space 2. Note also that in someinstances, the process may identify more than one cluster, and thusidentify more than one respective region within the space 2 and theshape of each such region.

Alternatively, the process may simply consider all the people and/orobjects 7 for the purpose of determining the shape of a region withinthe space 2, without a clustering criterion or criteria being applied.As another example, the process may identify a plurality of differentregions based on different categories of people 6 and/or object 7. Forexample if the positioning system 12 can identify the people 6 itdetects as falling in different categories, e.g. based on an ID of therespective mobile devices 8 or their users, or based on imagerecognition, then the different categories of people 6 may be analysedseparately to detect the shape of the respective spatial distribution ofeach, and thus assign a different spatial region within the space 2corresponding to each category. For instance, the lighting controller 18or positioning system 12 may have access to a database of staff IDs andmay thus distinguish between staff and other people, who may be assumedto be customers (or more generally patrons or members of the public).E.g. the positioning system 12 may detect the IDs embedded in the beaconsignals emitted by the mobile devices 8, or reported from the mobiledevices 8 to the positioning system 12 by other means (e.g. along withthe signal measurements in a device centric arrangement). Alternativelyor additionally, in a variant of this, the positioning system 12 may beable to distinguish between people 6 and nonhuman objects 7, and todetermine the shape of a different spatial region corresponding to each.

By whatever means the one or more regions and their respective shapes(formations) are determined, based on this, the lighting controller 18then determines a respective group 16 of the luminaires 4 correspondingto each of the one or more identified spatial regions in which peopleand/or objects 6 are grouped. To do this, the lighting controller 18 hasaccess to a database mapping the locations of the luminaires 4 to theirrespective locations within the space 2. By comparing the location andshape of the determined region(s) to the known locations of theluminaires 4, the lighting controller 18 is thus able to identify thecorresponding group 16 or groups of luminaries 4 which substantiallycontribute to the illumination of the region(s) in question.

The lighting controller 18 stores an indication of the identifiedluminaire group(s) 16 in the commissioning database 19, mapping IDs ofthe respective luminaires 4 in a given group 16 to an indication thatthese IDs are grouped, e.g. to a group ID. This thereby allows theluminaires of the group to be controlled as a group, i.e. by referenceto the group as a whole, e.g. by reference to the group ID.

Over time, as the positions of the people 6 and/or objects 7 change(i.e. as they move), and/or as one or more of the people 6 and/orobjects 7 enter or leave the space 2, then the process of detecting thespatial distribution of the one or more groups of people 6 and/orobjects 7 and determining the corresponding one or more groups ofluminaires 6 is repeated. This could be done periodically, and/or couldbe done in response to an event such as detecting movement, a change inposition, a new person or object being detected in the space 2, or apreviously-detected person or object in the space now being missing.

In further embodiments, the lighting controller 18 may be configured tostore a record of the determined distribution of people 6 and/or objects7 and/or a record of the determined grouping 16 of luminaires 4 in thecommissioning database 19. The lighting controller 18 repeats this onmultiple occasions over a periodic window of time such as a day, week,month, season and/or year (i.e. over multiple different times withinthat window when the distribution is substantially different so as toresult in a different grouping 16 of luminaires 4). Based on thishistory, the lighting controller 18 can then build of a model of how thedistribution of people 6 and/or nonhuman objects 7 is expected to behaveover the window of time in question. Using this the lighting controller18 may be configured to then predict the behaviour at a given time in asubsequent instance of the period question, e.g. a subsequent day, week,month season and/or year, by inputting the current time to the model.E.g. if customers have behaved in certain way in terms of their spatialdistribution over the last week or month, then the lighting controller18 may predict that they will do so again this week or month (or atleast an approximation of this) in a subsequent week or month. Or ifobjects 7 such as the in-store furniture was observed by the system tohave been arranged in a certain way in a certain month or season lastyear, then the lighting controller 18 may predict that they will bearranged in the same or a similar manner at the same time this year.

Note that the commissioning database 19 need not necessarily be a singlefile, single data structure or any other single monolithic entity. Forinstance in embodiments where the commissioning database 19 is used torecord both the current grouping 16 and the history of pastdistributions or groupings, then the current grouping 16 and the historydo not have to be stored in the same table, data structure or databasefile, though they could be. As discussed previously, nor does thecommissioning database 19 have to be implemented on a single physicalmemory unit, server unit or terminal, though again it could be.Furthermore, note that the term database does not imply any particularsize or amount of data, and could refer to anything from a small look-uptable upwards.

According to the various embodiments discussed above, there is thusprovided a system which dynamically adapts a grouping 16 of theluminaires 6 in response to detection of actual current or predictedusage of the space 2.

By whatever means the grouping 16 is determined, the lighting controller18 is configured to output an indication of the one or more groups 16 ofluminaires 4 to a user 14 (such as a store manager) via the userinterface 21. N.B. in embodiments this user 14 is not a member of thepublic and/or not necessarily one of the people 6 in the space 2(thought that is not excluded either).E.g. in embodiments the user 14 towhom the information on the grouping 16 is displayed may be a store orhotel manager whilst the people 2 in the space are members of thepublic.

This information may for instance be displayed to the user 14 by meansof a graphical user interface displayed on a display screen of the userinterface 12, e.g. showing the locations of the grouped luminaires 4, 16on a floorplan or even a 3D model of the space 2. The lightingcontroller 18 is configured to then enable the user 14 to select thegroup 16 or one or more of the groups of luminaires 4 in order tocontrol the luminaires of the group 16 as a single item (e.g. byreference to the database it has recorded mapping the luminaire IDs tothe indication of the grouping(s) 16). For example the user 14 mayselect the group 16 of luminaires 4 by touching it on screen in the caseof a touchscreen, or else selecting it with a pointing device such as amouse, trackpad or trackerball, or by other means such as a keyboardshortcut. Thus the user 14 does not have to manually form the group(s)16 him- or herself. Instead, the user 14 just selects the group 16 as awhole and then (also through the user interface 21) chooses a lightingeffect or effect to apply to the group 16 together as a whole, e.g. toturn their emitted illumination on or off, or dim their emittedillumination up or down, or change the colour of their emittedillumination, or to control the illumination emitted from the group 16to render a predefined spatial and/or temporal lighting pattern (a“lighting scene”).

Alternatively however, the lighting controller 18 may be configured toautomatically adapt the lighting emitted from the determined group. E.g.the lighting controller 18 may control the group 16 of luminaires 4 togive off a certain lighting effect in response to detecting greater thana threshold number of people 6 in the corresponding cluster, and/or at acertain time or date. E.g. the lighting controller 18 may implement arule that says when a group of more than N (e.g. three) people are foundwithin a region corresponding to a certain group of luminaires 4, thenthe light level emitted by those luminaires is increased to a maximum.In further embodiments the controller may allow both manual andautomatic modes of controlling the illumination emitted by the group 16of luminaires 4.

The following describes an example of a particular use case in retail,such as in a clothes store. Nevertheless, it will be understood that thetechniques disclosed herein can be applied to different sorts ofapplications, like meeting rooms, museums, etc.

In embodiments, an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) 12 is available inthe store 2. The IPS 12 can be based on different technologies (visiblelight communication, Bluetooth Low energy, WiFi triangulation, etc.) andcan track the position of customers 6 (carrying a smartphone or smartwearable device 8 compatible with the IPS 12 and running the relatedapp). The IPS functionalities are extended with algorithms that candetect groups of people 6 in the same area, based on the measurement ofthe distances among them from the position information.

In the store 2, a networked lighting system 4, 10 is available. Thesystem is commissioned in such a way that the position of each luminaire4 is known to the system and that the luminaires 4 are all individuallyaddressable. The lighting system 4, 10 can communicate with the IPS 12.In a preferred embodiment, the IPS 12 and lighting system 4, 10 may befully integrated, e.g. a visible-light communications (VLC) based IPS.The luminaires 4 can be controlled via a UI 21 that can be operated bye.g. the store manager 14 via a PC, smartphone or tablet, etc.

In a preferred embodiment, whenever the IPS 12 detects the creation of agroup of people 6, this information is provided to the lighting system10. The lighting system 10 automatically creates one or more group ofluminaires 4 in the area where the group is located and this group isautomatically presented in the control UI 21, so that the store manager14 can use it to trigger a specific light effect (e.g. increase lightlevel, change colour, etc.) from those luminaires 4 that belong to thenewly formed group.

In another embodiment, the information about groups of people 6, theirposition and their dynamics in time can be stored by the IPS 12 in asecured database 19. This information can then be analysed via dataanalytics techniques to identify the optimal structure for the groups 16of luminaires 4 in order for the store manager 14 to operate thelighting system 4, 10 in an efficient way based on the real shoppingbehaviour of the customers 6 in time.

In another embodiment, the position of the moveable items 7 in thestore, such as moveable clothes racks, is as well tracked, e.g. by usingmobile devices 8 attached to the items 7, in order to detect the layoutof the store 2 and of the goods being exposed. This information can beused to automatically create other groups 16 of luminaires 4 that can beused by e.g. the store manager 14 to trigger light effects around themoveable racks. It will be appreciated that the above embodiments havebeen described by way of example only. Other variations to the disclosedembodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the artin practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, thedisclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word“comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps, and theindefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A singleprocessor or other unit may fulfil the functions of several itemsrecited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recitedin mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that acombination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. A computerprogram may be stored/distributed on a suitable medium, such as anoptical storage medium or a solid-state medium supplied together with oras part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms,such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunicationsystems. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed aslimiting the scope.

1. Equipment for automatically commissioning a lighting systemcomprising a plurality of luminaires for illuminating one or moreregions within a space the equipment comprising: a positioning systeminterface configured to receive signals from a positioning system,indicating a respective location within said space at which each of aplurality of physical entities is detected by the positioning system,each of the entities being a person or a movable nonhuman object; acontroller configured to control the plurality of luminaires andconfigured to determine a spatial distribution of at least some of saidentities based on the locations indicated by the signals from thepositioning system, and to determine a region within said spacecorresponding to said spatial distribution, said region being smallerthan said space; and wherein the controller is configured to identify agroup of the luminaires that are arranged to illuminate said region andto store identifiers of the luminaries of the group together as a groupin a commissioning database, the group of luminaires being fewer thanthe plurality of luminaires of the lighting system, and wherein thecontroller is configured to control the group of luminaires together. 2.The equipment of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: storeinformation on said region or locations in the commissioning database;repeat, on multiple occasions over a period of time, the receiving ofthe signals from the positioning system, the determination of thedistribution of entities and the corresponding region within the spacebased on the received signals, and the storing of said information;analyse the stored information from the multiple occasions in order toestimate a time-varying distribution of the entities over said period;and perform the identification of said group of luminaires based on thetime-varying distribution evaluated at a current time within asubsequent instance of said period.
 3. The equipment of claim 1, whereinthe equipment comprises a lighting interface configured to enable thecontroller to control the illumination emitted by the luminaires; andthe controller is further configured to selectively control theillumination emitted by the group luminaires based on said creation ofthe group of luminaires.
 4. The equipment of claim 3, wherein theequipment comprises a user interface, and wherein the controller isconfigured such that said selective control comprises: outputting anindication of the identified group of luminaires to a user via the userinterface, in response receiving back a user input via the userinterface by which the user selects to control the group of luminaires,and controlling the illumination emitted by the group of luminairesbased on said user input.
 5. The equipment of claim 1, wherein thecontroller is configured, subsequent to the determination of said groupof luminaires, to: operate the positioning system interface to receiveone or more further signals from the positioning system, indicative of arespective updated location of each of one or more of said plurality ofphysical entities, and/or of one or more newly present physical entitiesbeing people and/or nonhuman movable objects newly detected in thespace; determine an updated spatial distribution based on the updatedlocations, and determine an updated region within the spacecorresponding to the updated spatial distribution, the updated regionbeing smaller than said space; and in place of said group, identify anupdated group of the luminaires that are arranged to illuminate theupdated region, and store identities of the updated group of luminariestogether as a group in a commissioning database, the updated group beingfewer than said plurality of luminaires of the lighting system.
 6. Asystem comprising the equipment of claim 1, and further comprising thepositioning system, the positioning system being arranged to detect thelocations of said entities.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein one, someor all more of said entities are people, the positioning system beingarranged to detect the locations of the people.
 8. The system of claim6, wherein one, some or all of the entities are nonhuman movableobjects, the positioning system being arranged to detect the locationsof the movable nonhuman objects.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein oneor more of said entities are people and one or more others of saidentities are nonhuman movable objects.
 10. The system of any of claim 5,wherein for each respective one of one, some or all of said entities,the positioning system is arranged to detect the location of therespective entity by reference to wireless signals transmitted between amobile device attached to or carried by the respective entity and aplurality of reference nodes within range of the mobile device.
 11. Thesystem of claim 6, wherein one or more of the mobile devices arewearable devices worn by the receptive people.
 12. The system of claim6, wherein for each respective one of one, some or all of said entities,the positioning system is arranged to detect the location of therespective person based on detecting a wireless signal emitted by orreflected from the respective person's body.
 13. The system of claim 6,wherein for each respective one of one, some or all of said entities,the positioning system is arranged to detect the location of therespective person based on the user interacting with a reference pointin said space.
 14. A computer program product for automaticallycommissioning a lighting system comprising a plurality of luminaires forilluminating one or more regions within a space, wherein the computerprogram product comprises code embodied on a computer-readable storagemedium and configured so as when run on one or more processing devicesto perform operations of: receiving signals from a positioning system,indicating a respective location within said space at which each of aplurality of physical entities is detected by the positioning system,each of the entities being a person or a movable nonhuman object;determining a spatial distribution of at least some of said entitiesbased on the locations indicated by the signals from the positioningsystem, and determining a region within said space corresponding to saidspatial distribution, said region being smaller than said space; andidentifying a group of the luminaires that are arranged to illuminatesaid region and storing identifiers of the luminaries of the grouptogether as a group in a commissioning database, the group of luminairesbeing fewer than the plurality of luminaires of the lighting system. 15.A method of automatically commissioning a lighting system comprising aplurality of luminaires for illuminating one or more regions within aspace, wherein the method comprises: receiving signals from apositioning system, indicating a respective location within said spaceat which each of a plurality of physical entities is detected by thepositioning system, each of the entities being a person or a movablenonhuman object; determining a spatial distribution of at least some ofsaid entities based on the locations indicated by the signals from thepositioning system, and determining a region within said spacecorresponding to said spatial distribution, said region being smallerthan said space; and identifying a group of the luminaires that arearranged to illuminate said region and storing identifiers of theluminaries of the group together as a group in a commissioning database,the group of luminaires being fewer than the plurality of luminaires ofthe lighting system.